After All These Years
by apAidan
Summary: It's Harry's birthday and Hermione's decided to throw a party for him and all their friends. But to pull it off, she's going to need the help of a mysterious singer that Harry knew years ago. A singer whom everyone thinks is still carrying a torch. H/Hr


After All These Years

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><p><em>AN – All of the characters and concepts of the Harry Potter universe are the property of JK Rowling and various corporate entities and no infringement upon those rights is intended. It's late on the 31__st__, do you know where your seeker is?_

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><p>Chapter One – Hip Check<p>

_9 p.m. 31 July, 2011 – Chameleon's Night Club, Berkeley Square, London_

"Midnight's back. One set and one set only."

The news spread like wildfire. The mysterious metamorph rocker who had headlined at Chameleon's in London for five years before her surprise retirement almost seven years ago was going to grace the stage with her old band The Changelings for one last performance.

Years of very public pleading and groveling by the owners of the club hadn't coaxed her out of retirement. And while Seamus Finnegan and Dean Thomas had tried every trick in the book to bring her back, the one thing that never entered their minds was revealing her real name to the public.

Never.

When asked about it during an interview with the music reporter for Witch Weekly a few months after her retirement in 2004, Seamus had gotten very quiet for almost a minute before answering. When he assured the witch asking the question that both of them would take that information to their graves, he smiled at her look of disbelief. When asked why, Seamus grinned and shrugged before making the observation he had traded spells with Bellatrix Lestrange during the Final Battle and had fallen asleep once in Transfiguration his sixth year and Midnight was way scarier than either Headmistress McGonagall or the late Death Eater.

Of course when the reporter turned to Dean and asked if there was anyone scarier, he skipped over his wife Parvati who was an Unspeakable and stage whispered, "Hermione Granger". Needless to say, Dean's retraction after his release from St. Mungo's the next day did nothing to lessen the legend of either witch, even though it was his wife who had actually hexed him.

Apparently, the only thing that would bring Midnight out of retirement was the birthday bash being thrown for one Harry Potter by his wife. Despite the rumors that had swirled around the very public relationship between Midnight and Harry for the two years before she retired and the fact that Harry and Hermione had married shortly after Midnight had retired, Hermione had been very insistent that it wouldn't be a party for Harry without the mysterious singer being present.

While it wasn't a private party, the seating on the main floor and the first balcony was all 'Reserved' that night and the seating list for those seats read like a 'Who's Who' of the friends and family of Harry and Hermione. While not everyone in Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw during the Harry's time at Hogwarts was on the list, they made up the bulk of the persons attending.

Adding to that the friends and colleagues that that two had made during their Ministry careers and it was apparent that the birthday bash for one party was the place to go that night if you wanted to find anyone in magical Britain to make a decision about anything more important than what type of pastries to have at Monday morning's staff meeting. Harry's being selected as Chief Auror and Hermione transfer to DMLE and becoming the staff advocate for the Chief Auror's detachment had literally placed then in the center of Ministerial politics.

The festivities had started around seven with the arrival of the 'birthday boy'. Hermione, Luna, and Daphne had coordinated the party and the invitations very specifically mentioned that no presents were expected or necessary, but anyone so motivated could make an appropriate donation to the Lily Evans / Aranrhod Jones Institute for Magical Education, a school that was started by the Potter, Lovegood, and Greengrass families and named in honor of the muggleborn mothers of both Harry and Luna.

Overseen by Daphne's mother Sophia, who was a muggleborn witch herself and a close friend of the other two witches during her Hogwarts' years, the school's primary focus was identifying non-magical families with children who were magical and easing their transition to the magical world. Offering a primary school education beginning in what would be their third year, the Evans-Jones Institute, as it was known in the non-magical world, helped to prepare both student and family for the changes that were going to occur in their lives.

The first two sets by the band had gone over well, with most of the assembled crowd making it out to the dance floor a number of times. While more accomplished than he was during the long ago Yule Ball, it still took a fair amount of coaxing to get Harry out on the dance floor.

At the end of the second set, Ginny Creevey and several of her teammates from the Harpies made their apologies to Harry as they prepared to leave. Citing a team curfew and an obligation they couldn't get out of, the crowd laughed and applauded as all six of the very fit quidditch players gave Harry a birthday kiss on the cheek, carefully overseen by Hermione. While their very public breakup had been less than friendly, Harry and Ginny had overcome their differences and had become good friends over the years

The appearance of an auror moments later had Hermione making her apologies and promising she would be back 'before the finale' and asking Luna to 'make certain Harry behaved'.

A few minutes later the lights in the house dimmed twice and then the band started coming back on stage. Taking full advantage of their abilities, The Changelings strutted on stage the very essence of an 80's hair band. Picking up their instruments, the lead singer stood with his back to the audience while the band began cranking out the rhythmic intro to the song that they had traditionally opened up with when Midnight had been headlining the group.

Turning around slowly, trademark headband in place, he merely pointed towards the center of the balcony.

Over the raucous sound of the guitars, bass, and drums, the distinctive snarl of a very large predator was heard. The audience went ballistic as a massive ink-black feline leaped from the edge of the balcony and landed gracefully on the stage. Sitting back on her haunches, the two hundred kilo ink black panther snarled once before beginning to shift in form.

Uncurling from her seated position, the tall, leggy blonde in her trademark leather stood up, grabbed the microphone and smirked at the audience who was on their feet applauding.

Smiling ferally, Midnight caught Harry's eye, and with a sultry "Miss me?" she launched into her trademark opening number, _"Look What the Cat Dragged In"_.

Forty-five minutes later, after a high energy set that pinballed all over the musical spectrum from AC/DC's _"It's A Long Way to the Top"_, complete with bagpipes, to a hilarious impersonation of the Blues Brothers performing _"Sweet Home Chicago"_, to a very high energy performance of Poison's _"Take Dirty to Me"_ which had the audience in stitches, and Harry's face red as a beacon, when Midnight morphed into the likeness of Severus Snape and implored Harry to take him "down into the dungeons and lock the Potions door", the night was finally coming to a close.

As the band prepared for its final number, Luna came bouncing up on stage dressed in a very short miniskirt and a skintight top that proudly proclaimed "I'm with the band". Taking a curtsy at her reception, she looked over at Midnight, who smirked and nodded in return.

Picking up the mic, Luna waited until the crowd settled down and began.

"We've been here to celebrate Harry's birthday, and I think that's been a rousing success."

Waiting for the applause to die down, she smiled and waved in the general direction of the band. "I'd really like to thank the band for doing the show tonight and especially thank Midnight for getting over the fact that Harry went and got married to a different witch and coming to do the show tonight.

Pausing for the standing ovation and the chanting of Midnight's name, Luna smiled and motioned for the crowd to settle down again. When they didn't seem to be stopping, she pulled her wand out from behind her ear and let go with a cannon shot that had the first two rows covering their ears but managed to get the crowd's attention.

Turning to Midnight, Luna waved her over. When the tall blonde reached the center of the stage, Luna looked up at her and giggled once before turning back to the crowd.

"Hermione wanted Harry to be involved in this last number, but since the boy's still a bit shy, we decided that we'd improvise a bit." Looking over at Midnight, who had knelt down as was talking to Harry out in the audience, Luna cleared her throat to get her attention. Finally getting her attention away from Harry, Luna scowled at the singer and shook her head.

"Improvise already."

Midnight chuckled and began to shift. As her metamorph abilities shifted her form from tall, blonde and female to medium height, raven haired and male, a switching spell exchanged her trademark leather rocker outfit for a set of Gryffindor quidditch robes with number seven on them.

Looking from the Harry in the audience to the Harry on stage and back again, Luna smirked, "You'll do". Anything else she was going to say was interrupted as a pair of owls dropped letters on the stage at her feet.

Picking them both up, and muttering something about not taking requests, she opened both and read through them quickly. Smiling broadly, she looked at Midnight before continuing.

"We've had a couple of requests that need to be taken care of before the band does our final number for the night." Handing the one to the Harry onstage, Luna smirked as the onstage Harry blushed. Handing him the mic, she motioned for him to say something.

Looking into the crowd and finding Harry's longtime friend Parvati Thomas, Midnight/Harry casually reached down and adjusted the front of her quidditch uniform before speaking. "Yes, Parv, the transformation is anatomically correct." Waiting for the crowd to start laughing, she added, "as best as I recall, anyway."

As the crowd was laughing and giving the real Harry in the audience a hard time, Luna took the mic back. Seeing her reach for her wand, the crowd quickly quieted down as she continued.

"And as for the second request, I've got some bad news for our unauthorized press representative. Sorry Pansy, but neither one of them are going to meet you afterwards for an interview."

There was a moment of stunned silence before the crowd began laughing, both at the mortified look on Harry's face and the beet red Pansy Parkinson who fled the auditorium as if the hounds of Hell were chasing her.

Waiting for a moment, Luna turned to onstage Harry and quirked an eyebrow at him. Seeing the singer nod, Luna stepped to the edge of the stage and held up her hand.

"Hermione got called away, but she decided that she wanted everyone to know that just being a year older hadn't slowed Harry down any. Since getting the real Harry up on stage would be like pulling cockatrice teeth, we decided to settle for the next best thing."

Taking the mic back from Luna, Midnight doing her best Harry impression pushed his glasses back up on his nose, ran his free hand through the trademark messy hair and started.

"Hermione was very insistent that she wanted everyone to know that Harry's still the same as he ever was, and that being a father, Chief Auror, and a host of other things hasn't turned him into an old fuddy duddy before his time." Looking at the band over his shoulder, Midnight/Harry nodded as the drummer started a click count as the rest of the band picked up their instruments.

Turning back around, onstage Harry struck a pose and said, "And according to Hermione, I'm just too hip to be square."

As the horns and the drums began, the spotlight focused on Midnight/Harry as he began to sing:

_I used to be a renegade, I used to fool around_

_But I couldn't take the punishment and had to settle down_

_Now I'm playin' it real straight and yes I cut my hair_

_You might think I'm crazy, tell me I'm nowhere_

_'Cause I can tell you that I'm_

_Too hip to be square_

_Too hip to be square_

_I like my bands in cool cool robes, I watch them on TV_

_I'm workin' out most everyday and watchin' what I eat_

_They tell me that it's good for me but I don't even care_

_I know that it's crazy; I know that it's nowhere_

_There is no denyin' I'm just_

_Too hip to be square_

_Too hip to be square_

_Too hip to be square_

_Too very hip to be square_

As the band began the instrumental interlude, Luna started dancing with the onstage Harry. As they flipped through various styles of dancing while the lead guitarist and the sax player exchanged solos, including a very good Uma Thurman impression on her part, there was suddenly a flash of light and Luna was dancing with the real Harry as Midnight was back to her trademark leathers and starting the next verse

_It's not too hard to figure out, you see it everyday_

_And those that were the farthest out have gone the other way_

_You see them on the freeway, it don't look like a lot of fun_

_But don't you try to fight it, an idea whose time has come_

_Don't tell me that I'm crazy; don't tell me I'm nowhere_

_Cause baby I'm telling you Harry's just_

_Too hip to be square_

_Too hip to be square_

_Too hip to be square_

_Too very hip to be square_

_Let the Harpies sing it!_

At that point, the glamours dropped and the entire Holyhead Harpies quidditch squad, led by Ginny Creevey appeared on stage in what had been affectionately dubbed by the press their 'calendar uniforms'. Shorter, tighter and showing an extreme amount of skin that would never work in a quidditch game, the entire twenty-two witch squad appeared standing around Harry and as Ginny and Gwenog grabbed him to keep him from escaping, they began to sing.

_Here, There. And Everywhere_

_Hip, hip, Harry's too hip to be square_

_Here, There. And Everywhere_

_Hip, hip, Harry's too hip to be square_

The choruses continued until every Harpy onstage, and quite a number of Harry's old classmates who had stormed the stage, had gotten a short dance and kiss on the cheek from the birthday wizard.

Finally winding down the song, Midnight recovered the mic as the band finished up and wrapped her arm around Harry.

Bowing to the crowd, and acknowledging the witches on stage, Midnight kissed Harry on the cheek before turning back to the crowd.

"It was a pleasure to come out tonight and have one more set with the band." Turning around, but not letting go of Harry, she blew a kiss to the band.

"All of the arrangements have been made, and everyone can stay as long as they want, but I made a promise, and I've got to have Harry safely tucked in bed since tomorrows a work day and he's got a very early meeting with the Minister, his Advocate, and the Head of DMLE in the morning." Shading her eyes, so she could see into the crowd, Midnight smirked and used her wand to direct a spotlight to where Kingsley Shacklebolt was stealing a kiss from Padma Patil, his longtime companion. "Padma, don't keep Kingsley up too late, he's got a meeting with Harry in the morning."

As the crowd laughed as both tried to pretend they hadn't been caught kissing, Midnight shrugged and killed the light.

"Before we go, I'm going to do one thing that I always said I wouldn't." Pausing for a second, she smirked as Harry stiffened beside her and tried to pull away.

"On no, lover boy, you're not going anywhere. It's time for the truth to come out."

The house was so quiet you literally could have heard a wand drop.

"People have speculated about the nature of the relationship between me and Harry over the years, and I've only got one thing to say." Pausing for a moment, she chuckled at the resigned look on Harry's face before going on.

"Everything that they wrote about us was both right and wrong. Harry and I were involved during my stint with the band. Harry was involved with Hermione during my stint with the band and afterwards. Harry never cheated on me, and he never cheated on Hermione."

Seeing the shocked looks on most of the faces in the crowd, Midnight shrugged and looked over her shoulder as Luna yelled 'just get on with it"

"The reason for that is simple." Taking Harry's hand, Midnight began her final change.

From five eleven to five two. From straight blonde to wavy chestnut. From electric blue eyes to chocolate brown. From Midnight into Hermione Potter.

Wrapping her arm around Harry, Hermione tossed the mic to Luna and grabbed her husband and pulled him close. Starting a kiss that quickly turned into a snog, she activated the portkey built into the charm bracelet she was wearing and the pair disappeared in a flash of blue light.

Stepping forward, Luna smiled at the stunned crowd. Looking over at their friends who had known and kept the secret all these years, she winked at Ginny and Lavender before turning to the crowd, and in her best Elvis impersonator voice, proclaimed

"Harry and Hermione have left the building."

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><p><em>AN2 – All of the songs mentioned or alluded to are the sole property of their copyright owners and much appreciation is given to the bands who popularized these songs. Apologies to the writers of (Too) Hip to be Square and Talk Dirty to Me for the slight modifications to the lyrics. Things happen in a live performance. Also, I don't own Pulp Fiction, but for some reason Luna loves that dance scene. And Big Macs._

_Hermione becomes a metamorphmagus due to some unique circumstances. Fallout from the Cat Hair incident in Chamber of Secrets when combined with a much different potion in a later story of mine, she acquired the metamorph abilities as an unintentional legacy from Tonks through being Teddy's godmother (It's upcoming in 'Meet the Godparents')  
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_And for those who are counting, that's the second time I've used that closing line._

_Happy Birthday to Harry and here's hoping it's a harmonious one. (Epilogue? What Epilogue?)_

_A/N3 - minor editing for a correction on 8/3/2011. many thanks to alix33 for the assist.  
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